Past Lectures
Since its first lecture in 1985, the Burke Lectureship has sponsored or co-sponsored over sixty lectures on religion and society.
Click here to see past lectures on UCSD TV
2010 - present
The Bishop and the Imam - "A Conversation on Immigration"
Bishop Robert W. McElroy and Imam Taha Hassane November 18, 2019
Watch on UCSD TV
Jose Cabezon - "What is a Woman? What is a Man? Exploring the Buddhist Sources"
Dalai Lama Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
February 7, 2019
Watch on UCSD TV
Lauria Zoloth - "May We Make the World?: Religious and Ethical Questions - Gene Drives Malaria and the Duties of History"
Senior Advisor of the Provost, Programs in Social Ethics University of Chicago
November 15, 2018
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Rev. Traci Blackmon - "Building Beloved Community: ReConnecting Church & Community"
Executive Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ and Senior Pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO.
April 26, 2018
Watch on UCSD TV
Father Gregory Boyle - "Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship"
Founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the Largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry
program in the world.
November 9, 2017
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David Murphy - "Making room for the Stranger: Refugee Realities at Home and Abroad"
Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) San Diego
April 18, 2017
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Mary Evelyn Tucker - "Journey of the Universe: A Story of Our Times"
Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar, Yale University
October 20, 2016
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Veerabhadran "Ram" Ramanathan - In Pursuit of the Common Good: A New Alliance between Science, Religion
Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences and Director of the Center for Atmospheric Science at Scripps Institute of
February 24, 2016
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J. Kameron Carter - Post-Racial Blues
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School.
October 29, 2015
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Mehmet Yavuz - Zones of Islam: An Interpretative Framework, from Extremism to Turkey's Gulen Movement
- Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
April 23, 2015
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Richard Gaillardetz - Vatican II: An Unfinished Building Site
- the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College
November 20, 2014
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Peter Brown - Constantine, Eusebius, and the Future of Christianity
- Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton and author of influential books on late antiquity
April 24, 2014
Richard Cizik - An Evangelical Rebel in the Ranks: Saving the Planet, Ecumenism, and Political Dissent
- President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
November 18, 2013
James Kugel - From Text to Interpretation: How the Bible Came to Mean Some of the Strange Things it Means
- Director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Ilan University
May 2, 2013
Watch on UCSD TV
Ursula King - The Evolution of Religion, Society
- Professor Emerita and
senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol
November 13, 2012
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- Tariq Ramadan - Interpreting Islam in Modern Context
- Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies
April 16, 2012
Watch on UCSD TV - Peter C. Phan - "World Christianity": Its Implications for History, Religious Studies, and Theology
- Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown University
October 13, 2011
Watch on UCSDTV Francisco J. Ayala - Darwin's Gift to Science andReligion Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Professor of Philosophy, (School of Humanities), and Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine
April 7, 2011
Watch on UCSD TV- Amira Hass - The Israeli Policy of Separate Development
- Author and Columnist for Ha'aretz
November 15, 2010
Watch on UCSD TV - Elizabeth A. Johnson - An Ecological Inquiry - Jesus and the Cosmos
- Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University
May 13, 2010
Watch on UCSD TV - Dwight Hopkins - China Rising: Religious and Ethical Core Values in the 21st
Century Professor of Theology at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago
January 21, 2010
2000 - 2009
- Scott Appleby - What Can Muslims and Catholics Teach Each Other?
- Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, and the John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
October 22, 2009 - Ronald C. White - Abraham Lincoln's Journey of Faith
- Professor Emeritus of American Religious History at San Francisco Theological
Seminiary , Visiting Professor of History at UCLA and Fellow of the Huntington Library
April 30, 2009
Watch on UCSD TV - David Tracy - "Masks of Self: Theological and Tragic"
- Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies and Professor of Theology and the Philosophy of Religion in the Divinity School; University of Chicago
February 2009 - Khaled Abou El Fadl - "Islamic Law and the Challenge of Islamophobia"
- Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law at UCLA Law School, UCLA
May 2008
Watch on UCSD TV - Lewis R. Lancaster - "Buddhism in a Global Age of Technology"
- Professor Emeritus, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Former D.H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley
April 2008
Watch on UCSD TV - Rosemary Radford Ruether - "American Empire and the War Against Evil
" Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology Emerita
Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union
February 2008
Watch on UCSD TV- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza - "The Power of the Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire"
- Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity, Harvard University
February 2007
Watch on UCSD TV - Rabbi Michael Lerner - "Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right: The Politics and Theology of Spiritual Progressives
" Editor , Tikkun Magazine, and Author
November 2006
Watch on UCSD TV- John Haught - "Evolution and Divine Providence: Are they Really Compatible"
- Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Georgetown University
February 2006 - Diana Eck - "Pluralism and the Ethics of Dialogue"
- Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Director of Pluralism Project, Harvard University
October 2005 - Wendy Doniger - "You Can't Get Here from There: The Logical Paradox of Creation Myths"
- Mircea Eliade Professor of Religion at the University of Chicago
February 2005
Watch on UCSD TV - John Shelby Spong - "The Terrible Texts of the Bible
" Bishop Emeritus of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark
November 2004
Watch on UCSD TV- Stanley Martin Hauerwas - "Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Truth and Politics"
- Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Divinity School of Duke University
February 2004
Watch on UCSD TV - Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki - "Looking Beyond the Mirror: The Intracultural Dialogue between Religion and Film"
- Claremont School of Theology, Director of the Whitehead International Film Festival
November 2003
Watch on UCSD TV - Athol Fugard - "A Catholic Antigone: Hildegard of Bingen
" South African Playwright, Actor and Director
February 2003
Watch on UCSD TV- Sohail Humayun Hashmi - "September 11 and the Tradition of Jihad"
- Alumnae Foundation Associate Professor and Chair of the International Relations Program at Mount Holyoke College
January 2003 - Ronald Cole-Turner - "The Genetic Revolution and Designer Babies: Moral and Religious Implications"
- Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
November 2002
Watch on UCSD TV - Samuel Ruiz Garcia - "The Pursuit of Justice from the Perspective of the Poor"
- Retired Bishop of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
October 2002
Watch on UCSD TV - Margaret Miles - "Short Beds and Narrow Sheets: Religion and the Common Good"
- Dillenberger Professor of Historical Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
April 2002
Watch on UCSD TV - Abdul Raheem Yaseer - "Afghanistan, Islam, and Recent Events: An Afghan Muslim Educator's Perspective"
- Center for Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska
January 2002
Watch on UCSD TV - Marcus Borg - "Religious Pluralism: Seeing Religion Again"
- Hundere Professor of Religion and Culture, Oregon State University
January 2002 - David Noel Freedman - "Religious Pluralism: Seeing Religion Again"
- Professor of History and Endowed
Chairin Hebrew Biblical Studies, UC San Diego
October 2001 - John P. Meier - "Jesus the Jew: But What Sort of Jew?"
- Author of A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Professor, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame
October 2001
Watch on UCSD TV - Amy-Jill Levine - "Reassessing Jewish-Christian Relations: Scripture, Polemic, and Salvation
" Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
April 2001
Watch on UCSD TV- John T. Noonan - "The Dog and The Fish: Lord John Acton and John Cardinal Newman
" Author and Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
November 2000- Thomas J. Reese, SJ - "The Politics of Papal Elections: How Will The Next Pope Be Selected?"
- Editor in chief of
AMERICA , a Jesuit weekly magazine
Spring 2000
1990 - 1999
- Avery Cardinal Dulles - "Christ, The Church and Social Order
" McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, Fordham University
Fall 1999- James Carroll - "The Cross at Auschwitz"
- Writer, winner of the National Book Award for An American Requiem
Winter 1999
Watch on UCSD TV - Joan Chittister, OSB - "Ecology, Theology
and Feminism: In Conjunction or in Conflict" - Benedictine author and lecturer
Spring 1998 - Robert Bellah - "Max Weber and World-denying Love: A Look at the Sociology of Religion
" University of California, Berkeley
Fall 1997- Tu Wei-ming - "Confucian Spirituality: The Idea of Immanent Transcendence"
- Confucian Humanist and Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy at Harvard University
Spring 1997
Watch on UCSD TV - Alice B. Hayes - "The Growth of a Leaf and a Life
" President , University of San Diego
Fall 1996- Elliot N. Dorf - "Balancing Self Defense with the Need for Peace
" Rector , University of Judaism Los Angeles
May 18, 1995- Thomas Stransky, CSP - "The Crisis of Religion in the Holy Land
" Director , Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Research Jerusalem
April 27, 1995- Seyyed Hossein Nasr - "Islam and the Dialogue Between the Abrahamic Faiths
" University Professor of Islamic Studies George Washington University
May 4, 1995- Michael Himes - "A Theological Foundation for an Environmental Ethic"
- Professor of Theology, Boston College
February 17, 1994 - Richard Louv - "Children at Risk: Voice of Hope
" Jounalist
A Symposium co-chaired by Teresa and Neil Coopes
October 23, 1993- Ines M. Talamantez - "Apache Female Initiation: The Practice of a Native American Religious Tradition
" Associate Professor of Theology, UC Santa Barbara
April 22, 1993- Richard A. McCormick, SJ - "Bioethics: What to Look For in the 90s"
- Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Notre Dame
April 30, 1992 - Gertrud Mueller-Nelson - "The Healing Journey of the Feminine
" Author , Lecturer
February 20, 1992- Daniel J. Sullivan - "Putting God on Stage: From Aeschylus to Woody Allen"
- Journalist and Theater Critic
April 25, 1991 - Hans Küng - "No Peace Among Nations Without Peace Among the Religions"
- Director, Tubingen, Institute of Ecumenical Research Tubingen, Germany
March 15, 1991 - Martin E. Marty - "The Fundamentalist Across the Globe, Down the Block or In the Heart"
- Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor University of Chicago
October 29, 1990 - Elizabeth A. Johnson - "Women in the Image of God, God in the Image of Women"
- Professor of Theology, Catholic University of America
May 2, 1990 - Ted Peters - "Discerning the Spirit of the New Age
" Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary, UC Berkeley
February 15, 1990
1985 - 1989
- James Cone - "Martin and Malcolm: A Dream or a Nightmare"
- Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology Union Theological Seminary
October 19, 1989 - Elie Weisel - "A World at Peace" cosponsored
- Mellon Professor of Humanities, 1986 Nobel Peace Laureate, Boston University
February 21, 1989 - Charles Curran - "Economic Justice for All"
- Visiting Brooks Professor of Theology, University of Southern California
October 13, 1988 - Daniel Berrigan, SJ - "Disarming the Heart, Disarming the World"
- Poet, Peace and Justice Advocate
October 20, 1988 - Karen Lebacqz - "Jubilee Justice
" Professor of Christian Ethics, Pacific School of Religion, UC Berkeley
October 6, 1988- Raymond E. Brown - "The Star, the Magi
and the Wicked Herod: Matthew's Gospel Story of Jesus' Birth" - Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies, Union Theological Seminary, New York
November 23, 1987 - Abigail McCarthy - "From the 30s to the 80s: The Education of a Twentieth Century Woman
" Author , Journalist
April 29, 1987- Joseph Cardinal Bernardin - "The Church in the Third Millennium: Age Old Values and New Challenges"
- Archbishop, Diocese of Chicago
October 28, 1986 - Robert McAfee Brown - "Religion and the Role of Dissent"
- Professor Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion
May 1, 1986 - J. Robert Nelson - "Human Life as a Criterion of Science
" Director , Institute of Religion Texas Medical Center
November 7, 1985- Theodore Hesburgh - "The Nuclear Threat to Humanity
" President , University of Notre Dame
April 3, 1985
